Chat sessions, such as provided by Microsoft Instant Messenger program, IBM SameTime program, Microsoft MSN Messenger program, Microsoft Windows Messenger program, Yahoo Instant Messenger program, and AOL Instant Messenger program, are well known today. Typically, a person at a client workstation initiates the chat session by invoking his or her chat session client program and identifying one or more other people to participate in the chat session. The person can identify the other people to participate in the chat session by accessing a directory, selecting individuals from a predefined list of people or selecting a predefined group of people. Then the person requests that his or her client computer send to a server the identifications (such as e-mail addresses) of the people to participate in the chat session. In response, a chat session server program tries to connect to the client workstations of the other people selected to participate in the chat session to determine if the other people are currently on-line. For any of the client workstations of these other people that are currently on-line, the server creates the chat session by invoking their respective chat session client program and identifying all the active members of the chat session. For any of the client workstations of these other people that are not currently on-line, the server notifies the originator that such people are not available for a chat session at this time. Next, any of the members of the chat session can type a message into a message text field on their client workstation, and then “send” the message. In response, the respective chat session client program sends the message to the server, and the server sends it to the other participants in the chat session. In some implementations of chat client programs, communication between clients is done on a peer to peer level, i.e. directly from client workstation to client workstation without mediation by or assistance from a server program. In either implementation, the effect is the same and there is the appearance that the clients are communicating directly to each other in the chat sessions. In response to a chat session message, the client workstations that receive the message will display the message, along with the identity of the sender. In the same manner, other participants can subsequently type a new message at their respective client workstation, and that new message along with the identity of the sender appears on the client workstations of the other workstations, nearly in real time.
A MessageLAN program was previously known to facilitate entry of text into a message text field of a chat session, as follows. The MessageLAN program provides icons or buttons in the chat session window, and if a user selects the icon or button, the MessageLAN program automatically enters predefined text, corresponding to the icon or button, in the message text field of the chat session window. (The text was predefined by the creator of the corresponding icon or button.) Then, the user can select to “send” the text in the message text field, and in response, the chat session client workstation will send this text to the other workstations (typically via a chat session server) in the same manner as if the user manually typed the text into the message text field.
A Lotus Notes electronic mail program was previously known. With this program, a user can define an icon or button and corresponding text for a predefined location of an e-mail, such as a signature block at the end of an e-mail. Subsequently, if the user selects the icon or button, the Lotus Notes electronic mail program automatically enters the corresponding text at the predefined location of the e-mail.
An object of the present invention is to facilitate entry of messages in a chat session.